18th Assembly voting records on bills show patterns of approval, and dissent

Editor's note: As part of our 2019 N.W.T. election coverage, David Wasylciw, data geek and founder of OpenNWT, is taking a look at the last Legislative Assembly – breaking down what the numbers tell us about how our government and our politicians work. Most importantly, he explains what this means for you, the voter, ahead of the election on Oct. 1. 

In his second instalment, David looks at how MLAs voted on bills — who voted with the majority every time, and who were the biggest dissenters.

In the first part of this series, we looked at an overview of the 18th Assembly, and two numbers stuck out quite a bit: there were fewer bills, and yet more total votes than usual. 

To take a look at what this means and what our MLAs were doing, we analyzed the details of these bills, and motions, and the votes on them. 

In the Assembly, there are two types of votes: voice votes, and recorded votes. With a voice vote, there is no record of how MLAs voted, only the final result. A recorded vote means that individual votes are recorded. 

Today, we'll be looking at the recorded votes when it comes to bills — how each MLA voted when new laws were on the table.

In the last government, there were 94 bills introduced, with 92 passed, one withdrawn (the Forest Act) and another defeated at first reading (a private members bill introduced by Hay River MLA R.J. Simpson regarding small business taxes). 

• ANALYSIS | The 18th Assembly did a lot, but did it differently, numbers show
• Find all of our N.W.T. election coverage at CBC.ca/NWTvotes

Of the ones that passed, 47 of them were introduced by Minister of Finance and Environment and Natural Resources Robert C. McLeod, and 17 were introduced by Minister of Justice Louis Sebert. 

Other Ministers and MLAs introduced a handful of bills each, but the clear majority of legislation in the last government focused on budgets and taxes.

Each bill introduced has at least three votes (first, second and third reading) generally spread out over a few months, but there are also votes — and introductions — on the committee report, on amendments or other related matters. That leads to larger numbers in our overall count, with McLeod counting for 139 and Sebert 54.

Most of these are voice votes, although in the last Assembly, they made a practice of having recorded votes for third reading. Overall, there were 90 recorded votes that had to do with bills. 

YK MLAs biggest dissenters, 3 MLAs voted in lockstep with gov't

Generally, cabinet ministers vote in favour of legislation (since they introduce it), and for those 90 votes, every cabinet minister voted in favour of every bill. Louis Sebert had the highest number of recorded votes for a minister, with 88. The only MLA to be present for more votes was Kam Lake MLA Kieron Testart, who was present for every single recorded vote in the Assembly.

The least? Tu Nedhé-Wiilideh MLA Tom Beaulieu, who was present for 66 of the 90 recorded votes.

To determine how MLAs voted, each vote was examined to see if they voted with the majority or not. When an MLA voted against the majority, we labelled it a dissent. Since cabinet generally introduces the legislation, none of the cabinet ministers had any dissents. 

Notably, neither did three regular MLAs: Mackenzie Delta MLA Frederick Blake Jr., Sahtu MLA Danny McNeely, and Nunakput MLA Herb Nakimayak. In the end, each of their recorded votes were with the majority. 

On the other side, Frame Lake MLA Kevin O'Reilly had the highest number of dissenting votes, clocking in at 13. The next highest was Yellowknife Centre MLA Julie Green with 8.

The relatively high number of dissenting votes stands in contrast to the 17th Assembly, where no MLA had more than two dissenting votes on legislation.

Dissenting votes are especially interesting when you consider the base of the Assembly is consensus government. Unlike Parliament or Legislative Assemblies in the provinces and Yukon, MLAs in the Northwest Territories are consulted on legislation before it is drafted, and generally have a much higher level of oversight. 

Additionally, in every vote situation, cabinet has to work with enough regular members that legislation passes. 

Settle claims, build consensus

The number of dissents may seem small, but In general, there were more dissenting votes on bills in the 18th Assembly than in the past — and more dissent by individual MLAs. 

There are a few reasons for this. First, in the last Assembly it became common practice to record votes at third reading of bills. In the past, this was much rarer — it happened only 11 times during the 17th Assembly. 

Because there were so many more recorded votes, MLAs were able to make a statement through having their vote against a bill on the record. In making it policy to record more votes, MLAs made themselves more accountable — there'd now be a track record to look back on.

It's interesting to note where much of the dissent comes from — Yellowknife and the unsettled land claim areas. 

That the level of dissenting votes from settled areas is zero shows that there are different approaches based on region and, while not exclusively linked, shows the importance of settling outstanding land claims to consensus government.

The next group of MLAs should look at this and see how they can build better consensus across all regions of the Northwest Territories. Just the same, as MLAs consider legislation and voting, it's important for them to find consensus, and not simply take a contrarian position.